Defining Failure

What does it mean to fail?

For some, it could be something as minor as a failed exam that breaks your hard-earned grade or as major as losing your job overnight.

But what does it really mean?

While failure is often perceived as the worst thing to happen to you at any particular moment in time, they are actually a good thing–depending on how we look at them. 

Often times, this is hard to believe because from a very early age, we were taught and programmed to perceive failures as a bad thing since they often have a negative connotation associated with them. However, when you take yourself out of that pivotal, detrimental moment, failures can turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

Negative Personification

Often times, we go through life expecting the best only to be handed the worst, but it’s through moments of adversity, setbacks, challenges, and above all– failure is when we begin to discover our true selves.

More often that not, failures of any kind are almost always associated in a negative light.

“You’re a failed mother because of x, y, z…”

“You failed an important test. You’re never going to pass that class!”

“You failed at finding your dream career by a certain age, meanwhile all your friends seem to have it all figured out.”

“You’ve failed at marriage because you finally had the courage to dig yourself out of a toxic, unhealthy relationship that no longer served you.” 

The laundry list goes on…

Re-envisioning Failure

What if we looked at failures in a positive light? No matter how difficult and almost hysterical it may seem during that given moment, failures are actually a good thing.

Why?

Because no matter where you are in your life or what cards you’re dealt, failure is the best teacher. 

When we take ourselves out of any given circumstance and examine our current or past circumstances with an objective and philosophical lens, we start to realize there is so much more to this “failed” moment than what lies on the surface.

Failure is the Best Teacher

Failure is the best teacher of them all because it makes us humble ourselves and re-evaluate why we failed in the first place. It makes us overthink and certainly lowers our self-esteem, motivation, and it can be very discouraging, but it has much to offer. Failure tends to bring out the worst in us by making us play the ‘blame-game’ because we seek validation or a scapegoat to blame our problems on either ourselves or others when shit hits the fan. 

However, if we shift our perspective to view failure as a positive thing, you’ll be amazed at how much better you’ll not only feel but how much wider we can open our eyes to the endless possibilities that lie ahead.

Failure= Success

Failure is a stepping stone to success because it introduces an alternate route. It teaches us that it’s okay not to have all the answers and not to have it all figured out either. It reminds us that we are not in control. It teaches us that while we may have failed at what may seem like the most important aspect(s) of our life at that given time, there is always another solution, another option, another gateway to achieve all the things you were set out to accomplish. 

Some of the most successful people out there have failed at some point of their lives because the in order to appreciate the top is to know what rock bottom feels like even for a short period of time. Keanu Reeves, J.K. Rowling, Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, just to name a few famous failures. 

In order for something or someone to grow back stronger than ever before, we must be knocked down lower than we ever thought we could be in order to rebuild stronger, foundational roots at the core. 

The next time you feel as though your entire world has crumbled beneath your feet because you’ve failed at just about any attempted task or new endeavor you took on, remember– this could be your powerful breakthrough moment because just like the moon needs darkness to shine full again, so do you.